


Whole New World

by tuesday



Category: Minecraft (Video Game)
Genre: Animal Death, Chuck is not a vegetarian, Gen, Humor, Isolation, Lava - Freeform, Mob Deaths, Temporary Character Death, Video Game Mechanics, Zombies
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-12-24
Updated: 2014-12-24
Packaged: 2018-03-03 08:08:28
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,134
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/2844056
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/tuesday/pseuds/tuesday
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>It's a whole new world--and it belongs to Chuck now.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Whole New World

**Author's Note:**

  * For [Sealgirl](https://archiveofourown.org/users/Sealgirl/gifts).



> I took a few liberties with some game mechanics, but I hope it works. Thanks so much to quantumbutterfly for the help! All remaining errors are my own.
> 
> Happy Yuletide!

The first thing Chuck did when she woke each morning was check on the chickens. The chicken pit had more than she could count now, packed so closely the birds seemed to overlap, but she tossed the majority of the eggs she collected against the wall anyway, taking delight in each tiny little fuzzball that appeared and fluttered slowly to the dirt floor of the pit. Next, she shoved a stack of seeds in as many full-grown chicken beaks as she could reach.

Satisfied there were more than enough, she pulled out an old stone sword. Her eyes gleamed as she said, half to herself, half to the writhing mass, "And now to thin the flock."

Stocked up on meats, she proceeded to the furnace room. While her food was cooking, she checked her gear. Her diamond armor was in fine shape, but her poor enchanted pick was in ragged condition. Unfortunately, she'd already repaired it as many times as she was able. 

"It's okay," she crooned to it softly. "You've lived a good life. You did a good job. So many diamonds, so many emeralds. What a good pick you were."

Using tools until they broke, she'd decided early on, was only for lesser creations. High-quality, beloved artifacts like these deserved a better end. She would commemorate it with another statue to decorate her garden, but its remains would be cremated by that which she loved best: lava.

Once she'd gathered everything, she set off for the outside and her beloved lava fountain, complete with three gushing towers. Had she died several times while crafting it? Yes. But that only made it more special, baptized in her blood and bones.

"We are gathered here today--"

The ceremony was beautiful. She may have shed a tear or two--or that may have been the smoke getting in her eyes. Either way, she was pleased. It was a good morning. The day could only get better from there.

So of course the zombies had to ruin everything.

"I was so sure I'd blocked over everything." Chuck glared at the little puff of smoke that preceded another zombie popping into existence despite the pile of dirt covering the spawner. This mineshaft had three dungeons, gleefully raided days ago, and she was only now getting back to actually mine out all the good stuff. She'd explored and lit torches everywhere, so it was a bit of a surprise to find a horde of zombies hosting a surprise party in front of the emerald vein she'd so been looking forward to. "So. Sure."

Ugh. There was rotten meat everywhere, and no magma in sight to cleanse it all. Some had even gotten on her diamond boots. Almost absentmindedly, she dispatched the newest zombie. This could only be solved by _more dirt_. She filled the entire dungeon with it.

After that, it was just her and the emeralds. The lovely, lovely emeralds.

When her pocketwatch indicated the sun was setting, she returned home with enough emeralds for another three blocks. Slowly, but surely, the preparations for building herself the magnificent castle she truly deserved were edging toward completion.

Things weren't always so idyllic, of course. When first she'd woken in this strange new world, she'd had no food, no tools, only the most basic, ragged clothing to cover her form. She'd had to _punch trees_ to gather enough wood for her first makeshift tools. That first night, she was chased by zombies and spiders through until morning. She'd run out of land and had to swim out to sea, and they'd _still chased her_. 

The second, she'd spent huddled in a hole in the dirt, only just large enough to fit her, listening to the hiss of spiders and creak and rattle of skeletons ranging back and forth above her little foxhole. When finally she'd emerged into glorious dawn, relieved to find the skeletons so much ash--the spiders had swarmed. She couldn't run fast enough that time, and her clothes were no protection at all.

She woke again in that original clearing.

But now--now! She was past all that. She'd burned her first, wooden tools in the furnace to smelt iron, and things had only looked up from there. Sure, she'd starved to death a time or twenty, and those damnable creepers had blown up her first seventeen bases. There'd been the Great Mine Flood of day thirty-two, and she'd drowned twice trying to stem the tide and reclaim that shaft. But it was all worth it, because on day forty-two, she'd discovered lava.

At first, it had seemed like any other day of exploration and scouting for a good cliffside she could knock creepers off--bonus points if they exploded mid-air--and perhaps build her new base. She'd imagined it as reaching stone fingers into the air, flipping off this world and its many adversities she was determined to overcome. She remained unimpressed with the sheer number of things out to kill her, especially when she discovered the joys (horrors) of cave spiders. She had just been considering how to get the effect of flaming fingertips when she stumbled into something strangely akin to a pond--a pond of death and fire.

When she appeared in the clearing, she knew one thing above all others. The burning, the pain, the power--"I must have it!"

Even the knowledge that none of her food or tools had survived her demise wasn't enough to dim her determination. What had seemed a dismal, desolate land of death, monsters, and more death contained wonders. And if lava existed on the surface, surely there was magma deep below.

(There was. Magma and _more _.)__

__Which brought her to today, emeralds safely stashed away, standing on the tip of one finger--flames safely encased behind glass, as she'd finally learned that lesson--surveying her great kingdom._ _

__To the right was her garden, decorated with flowers and statues of her finest weapons and tools. To the left was her zoo, a menagerie of monsters and helpless morsels she kindly allowed to live. A purple sheep bleated from its pen, a zombie moaned, a mooshroom simply stared sadly forward, slowly chewing its cud. Between the two stood her glorious lava fountain. Further out, she could see the area she'd cleared for her castle and its foundations of quartz and stone._ _

__She had a home. She had a project. She had a world she could shape to her whims. Life was good._ _

__A sudden hiss alerted her to a problem below. Beady eyes met her own, the creature hopping desperately against the stone wall in vain hope to reach her._ _

__Yes, she thought, smiling sharply to herself as she pulled out her bow. Life was very good._ _

__The creeper exploded mid-air._ _

__It was damn near perfect._ _


End file.
